Our Honest Wingman App Review (Worth It in 2024?)
by John Santana
Are you the kind of person who thinks online dating can be more challenging? Do you not have the nerve to sign up for a dating app yourself? Is one of your single friends hopeless when it comes to technology, yet eager to meet someone over the internet? Are you a Wingman?
If you want to help your friends meet that special someone, or if you need some help on that regard yourself, then Wingman has a new idea you might be interested in.
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What Is Wingman?
Wingman is based on the mutual sympathy of you most trustworthy friends when it comes to picking your next date. In stead of finding your own matches, the app, Wingman, has your friend do the hard work of sifting through profiles and sending you potential matches.
Wingman is what is known as a “peer matching” dating app. This means your future dating options don’t depend on a soulless machine matching arbitrary data and learning off of your every move. But instead, your matches depend on people you know who think they know you well enough to set you up on a blind date.
How Does Wingman Work?
The Wingman dating app works best if you have a very intrusive or controlling friend who likes playing cupid for everyone. To sum up Wingman in a single sentence: your wingman or wingwoman will set up your profile and do the scrolling for you on the dating app.
Your trustworthy friend will send out suggestions to other users prompting them to either respond or decline. If they like your profile, then you get to chat to them directly, otherwise nothing happens if they don’t find you interesting.
Wingman works similar to Tinder, in that both singles need to show interest for there to open a dialogue. The thing that sets Wingman apart is that their algorithm serves as the first filter, while your wingperson separates the wheat from the chaff.
The other shift here is that a single people cannot create their own profile on the dating app, nor can they chat with people. Your success on the app relies heavily on your wingman or wingmen to connect you to new people. But once the connection happens, its up to the single to seal the deal in the chat.
This naturally means you need to pick your wingman or woman carefully! Wingman might be a great app, but the wingman makes the last call. Picking only trusted friends the know you best makes sense.
Your matchmaker can be one or a group of friends. They can all select candidates for you on their own. Your wingman doesn’t have all the power, though! Single friends have a few tools to nudge the algorithm and a “rate wingman” feature for your friend.
Does Wingman Work As Advertised?
You might feel like the Wingman app doesn’t allow for a lot of freedom like many other dating apps. But the app offers more personal freedom than one might think! If you think your closest friends will be totally useless matchmakers, then the app has you covered.
Wingman has a bit of friendly competition built into its system. If you have more than one wingman, it encourages your friends to compete to be the best matchmaker. This works via a leaderboard system which increases your wingman rank each time you send your friend a match that they hit it off with. This keeps your friends from spamming you with profiles you don’t like as well.
You can think of Wingman as a co-operative dating app. If you find someone you like, when you’re supposed to be browsing for a friend, you can send your wingman a “nudge.” Nudges gives them an opportunity to send a profile right back at you. Wingmen help each other out, after all.
Features
Basically, the app works like Tinder. It has a similar profile viewing system where you swipe to accept or decline profiles. If you make a mistake and dismiss a profile by accident, you can just shake your phone to get the last profile back on screen.
Messaging is pretty basic. You have free and unlimited messages like a normal instant messaging app. You have to accept a user’s invite to talk to them, and then it’s as simple as to just introduce yourself.
As we said earlier, your friends make your matches for you and you can “nudge” your friends to influence their choices. Your friends will likely be motivated by the scoring system if you have some competition amongst each other to be the best wingman.
Everyone on the platform has a profile based on testimonials of their own wingperson, so there is the opportunity to learn more about the person, beyond what their friends know of them.
Sign Up Process
Registering for an account with Wingman means you have to provide your phone number and link your Facebook account to the dating service. The reason why Wingman needs this information is so that the team can judge the safety and authentication of their users.
Registration can only start through your wingperson. Once they’re registered, your friend invites you to join. The wingperson sets up the single’s profile for them, but the single still has to approve this testimony. The last part of the sign up process is that you link it up with photos from your Facebook account.
Security
Wingman’s connection to your Facebook account seems to only import information into the app and doesn’t post anything on your account. What Wingman does is that it collects information through cookies, much like any other social media app, which they sell for targeted advertising agents.
Their security policy mentions that Wingman does “take security measures to help safeguard your personal information from unauthorized access and disclosure”, but doesn’t elaborate on how. Read through the terms and conditions if it worries you.
Pricing
At time of writing the app is free to use for both wingpeople and singles. So you are encouraged to get more friends onto the app so that your matches will flow in quicker.
Is Wingman Popular?
The dating app has a fairly small user base at the moment. Wingman did garner a lot of attention from tech reviews and the press because of how novel it is. Reviews by Mashable, NBC, the Verge, and other sites are also available. Hopefully, this will help the userbase grow in the coming months.
Who Is Wingman For?
If you’re the kind of person who has trouble describing yourself in a positive light, then Wingman is the app for you. Your friend is there to talk you up and break the ice before you make the match.
Overall, the app functions like most other dating apps. If you are interested in the novelty, then give it a try. The app is free after all. But if you do not see the appeal, then the app probably won’t change your mind unless you have a strong circle of friends keen on helping each other in the dating scene.
The app mostly hosts people aged 30 and younger, even though it isn’t specifically marketed towards any age above 18. The userbase is also filled with mostly timid and anxious people.
Where Can I Find Wingman?
Wingman is available for both Apple and Android devices and work well on both devices.
You can download the Apple version from the Apple App Store.
The Android version is available from the Google Play Store.
Pros And Cons
Pros
- The novel concept is excecated well
- The wingman rating system makes the process fun & competitive
- You can see what your friends think of you during sign up process
- Available for both iOS and Android devices
- Free to use
- Simple user interface, similar to Tinder
Cons
- Your own choices are limited
- Not many users at time of writing
- Users report many bugs
- The actual singles can feel excluded from the process
- Phone number required for sign up
Some Alternatives
If you’re looking for a more quick and straightforward solution, why not try out these other? dating sites?
Ashley Madison
Ashley Madison is a dating site dedicated to married men and women, who are looking to experiment with an open relationship. Regardless of why you want to date outside the bonds of matrimony, Ashley Madison provides a discreet way to do it. Women have it easier on the site, with a lot more flexibility when it comes to the chat feature. Singles and married folk are welcome!
Adult Friend Finder
Adult Friend Finder is more of a hook-up site than an actual dating site. It has a much larger dating pool than Wingman and is a lot more popular as well. If you want your new relationships to have a little more intimacy at the start, then this app’s for you. This Adult site is for the open minded, free of judgement and plastered in raunchy images.
Bang Locals
Another adult site that helps you connect to the single locals in your area. The site has had a few run-ins with user issues and scam profiles, so be sure to keep your eyes out whenever you browse!
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a unique online dating experience then you have nothing to lose from trying out Wingman. This way you can even help your timid
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